Bill Torrey, Panthers’ elder statesman, still grinding as he nears 80

Hal Habib @gunnerhal

Wednesday

Jun 18, 2014 at 12:01 AMJun 18, 2014 at 9:26 PM

Bill Torrey’s team, the Florida Panthers, plays in Sunrise. He lives in West Palm Beach. He figured that when his days as the architect of the New York Islanders ended, he’d retire to South Florida and Bear Lakes Country Club. You know: Step out the back door, be on the golf course.

Except, decades later, his golf game is still shaky, but what really bugs him is his hockey team isn’t any better.

Torrey, the Panthers’ alternate governor, will turn 80 Monday. While he says he’s not sure if he’s as competitive as he was in his glory years, his next mouthful and his close associates tell a different story.

"I’ve had a lot of good days, I’ve had a lot of frustrating days," Torrey says. "The last few years, every night after a game here, when I get in my car and I drive up to West Palm, that hour drive, and we’ve had our asses handed to us, I keep saying to myself, ‘Are you dumb? Why? Why?’ "

Talk turns to the fleeting moment when the Panthers were on top of the South Florida sports landscape, the "Year of the Rat" when they reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1996 before getting swept by the Colorado Avalanche. Torrey has had 18 years to get over it. He has failed miserably.

Mention Uwe Krupp, who scored the Cup-clinching goal in overtime of Game 4 and who once played for Torrey’s Islanders, and Torrey says, "I have a bone to pick with him." Joe Sakic, MVP of those finals? "Next time we get a chance, we’ll kick his ass."

Sakic retired five years ago, at age 39.

Bill Torrey, age 79 for the next four days, may never retire.

"He drives down from Palm Beach and he gets heated up in the games," general manager Dale Tallon says. "We sit beside each other mostly every game and we cuss a little. We throw things. It’s just a pleasure to be around."

Sure, there’s passion in Tallon’s suite high atop the BB&T Center, but what eats at Torrey is that every season doesn’t spur a 1996-style buzz throughout South Florida.

"The fans responded unbelievably," he says of that era. "The entire area responded. Hockey was a big deal, and certainly you can’t say as a franchise, our overall performance since that time has generated that kind of interest.

"And that’s something that bothers me, something I have given a lot of thought to, and it’s probably one of the reasons I’m still hanging around these cold ice rinks."

Those cold rinks can make you feel remarkably warm sometimes. Starting with the 1979-80 season, the Islanders won four consecutive Stanley Cups with the talent Torrey collected. The Panthers have been a cold slap in the face, missing the playoffs 10 consecutive seasons, an NHL record. Then they made the playoffs in 2012 but have failed to qualify the last two years.

Still, Torrey trudges on, buoyed by the presence of highly respected Tallon and new owners Vinnie Viola and Doug Cifu, whose first moves included signing off on the reacquisition of popular goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Nowadays, Torrey is an adviser to Tallon, who is conducting yet another of the team’s coaching searches while also preparing for the June 27-28 draft. The Panthers hold the No. 1 selection, offering a chance to dream of another Stanley Cup.

"I have four sons. They’ve got four Stanley Cup rings," says Torrey, who gave each son a ring. "And I’ve been at it for God knows how many years and I don’t have one. So I want one — for myself."

That passion surprises no one around him.

"I don’t think you get to the levels he got without having that," says Bill Lindsay, the team’s TV analyst and scorer of the most famous goal in team history to beat Boston and kick-start the 1996 playoff run. "If you put Michael Jordan on the basketball court today and put him against someone, I know when it got serious, the same thing would come out. It’s something that never leaves your body."

In his younger days, Torrey satisfied his competitive fires by lacing up skates. He grew up within walking distance of the Montreal Forum ("I could get in and out of the Montreal Forum more ways than they could lock it up," he says), but his playing career didn’t have much of a chance. When he tried out for the Canadiens, he was one of 93 hopefuls seeking one spot. He ended up at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., but a stick to his left eye broke his orbital bone and destroyed his depth perception.

Working his way up NHL front offices meant traversing a winding yellow brick road that included organizing arena shows for Judy Garland and working under irascible owner Charlie Finley with the Oakland Seals.

Following the success on Long Island, Torrey figured he was stepping back when, less than two weeks after moving to South Florida, his phone rang. Then-Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga was inviting him to a football game even though football wasn’t on Huizenga’s mind.

"What would you think about an NHL franchise down here?" Huizenga asked Torrey.

"I think you’re nuts," Torrey said.

Except the more Torrey thought about it, the more convinced he became he could sell hockey anywhere. Next thing they knew, they were at an NHL meeting at The Breakers, where owners approved the formation of the Florida Panthers.

All Torrey had to do was field a team in 5 1/2 months.

"We didn’t own a puck," he says.

Three years later, they owned the Eastern Conference championship.

Now, they have Tallon, who helped put together the Chicago Blackhawks’ 2013 Cup-winning team.

"He’s the reason I came," Tallon says of Torrey. "I talk to him every day. He’s a mentor. I lost my father five years ago, and he’s like a second father to me."

That second father is about to celebrate a milestone birthday. If they put 80 candles in front of him, Torrey won’t flinch.

"I feel good," he says. "No aches or pains. Well, I have some aches or pains. Don’t like losing hockey games. That will never change. No."

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